A new anti-aging skin care project will transform the facial care market and have ramifications for the entire beauty industry. This project is the result of two major changes in consumer behavior and demographics. Diagonal Reports predicts this new anti-aging skin care project to be 80% bigger than the current market.

Firstly, the age of aging has fallen dramatically with consumers now seeking the benefits of anti-aging products before they actually age. Prevention has now become an issue for increasing numbers of young women in the developed world who take action a decade earlier than was the case in the past. Younger women were always a key market for beauty, but they are now creating and shaping a new category in anti-aging products and treatments also.

Secondly, longer life expectancy has exponentially increased demand for anti-aging as skin care regimes are being extended for ever longer periods. People are living longer so there are millions of potential new consumers with aging skin.

The signs of aging vary by geography, ethnicity and culture but they are of such profound concern that demand has remained resilient despite the recession. This contrasts with how shoppers have cut back on other—more discretionary—beauty spending.

But formulators should beware. This larger skin care project does not spell more of the same for the beauty industry or for individuals. The competition is multiplying. A wide range of portfolios of solutions and methods of delivery—including the traditional cosmetic and medicalized beauty—now vye for a share of anti-aging spending.

The most sophisticated and best informed generation of beauty buyers is arriving on the scene. Consumers' expectations for, and the investments made in, anti-aging skin care products and solutions will intensify. They will demand immediate and sustainable outcomes and rationalize their beauty spending accordingly.

This new research quantifies the value of this new skin care project and explains consumer behavior.

Diagonal Reports has been tracking the evolution of the anti-aging beauty buyer over the last decade.